Brian Cashman not only GM on hot seat as trade deadline approaches

LOS ANGELES — One week, your team is being compared to the greatest of all-time. The next, you are contemplating just how many holes must be plugged between now and 6 p. m.

on Aug. 2. Starting pitcher.

Reliever. Shortstop. Outfielder.

Add off-loading Joey Gallo. The Yankees’ Brian Cashman has quite the to-do list. Cashman will be operating from a place of strength, because even with a dip, the Yankees still have the majors’ best record.

Cashman will be maneuvering from an area of desperation, because going without a title in The Bronx since 2009 feels like something the James Webb Space Telescope has to focus upon to gauge just how long ago that is in Yankees years. The Yankees general manager also has an expiring contract, and though he is so entrenched with the organization that he is the executive version of the Stadium facade, more leverage never hurts — which is why Cashman will definitely not portray desperation in the trade market, whether he is or isn’t desperate. Cashman has much to decide.

In no particular order, does he believe: 1. Zack Britton and Luis Severino will return in full to help in the playoffs? 2. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a bit less on both sides of the ball than the Yankees hoped, will handle the biggest pressure games at shortstop? 3.

Matt Carpenter can continue channeling Barry Bonds enough to lower the temperature on finding another bat? 4. Center fielder Estevan Florial (12 homers, 27 steals, . 901 OPS) or shortstop Oswaldo Peraza (.

295/. 375/. 518 since June 1) can translate those Triple-A results (both are also strong defenders) into major league production for a championship-or-bust team? 5.

That he must protect the system after using so much in recent years, notably to acquire Gallo and Jameson Taillon, or is 2009 so long ago for this franchise that every prospect, up to and including Peraza and Anthony Volpe, is available, especially for the Nationals’ Juan Soto or the Reds’ Luis Castillo? Those questions put Cashman atop our list of executives under the most pressure ahead of the trade deadline. The rest: Cashman’s longtime Yankees No. 2 is No.

2 behind him again. Steve Cohen already is supporting a nearly $300 million payroll with a willingness to go higher. The Mets owner has said he wants a championship within the first three years of his reign.

And is that David Stearns lurking over everything? It might be harder to justify Eppler having to answer to someone above him in baseball operations if he were to help deliver a championship in his first year as Mets GM. On “The Show” podcast with myself and Jon Heyman, team president Sandy Alderson defined DH and relief as the two areas on which the Mets will fixate. But Eppler is from the modern school — the philosophy is to find ways to score more runs or give up fewer runs and not to get pigeonholed by limiting yourself in the marketplace.

That being said, the Mets must upgrade those areas: for example, take out Pete Alonso’s strong 85 plate appearances, and the rest of the Mets’ DH slash line was . 220/. 298/.

339 going into Saturday. So Josh Bell or C. J.

Cron taking those at-bats, rather than J. D. Davis and Dom Smith, would be a big upgrade.

Dipoto’s trade fanaticism, plus the longest postseason drought in the four major North American sports leagues (since 2001), plus six teams now making the playoffs in both leagues equals … expect aggression. Seattle has a strong farm system (how fascinating if another club values Jarred Kelenic, believing in his Triple-A numbers, not his MLB putridness). The system is good enough that the Mariners can seriously play for Soto.

And they should. Seattle needs to make the playoffs. Period.

Recently fired manager Charlie Montoyo was the scapegoat for the team constructed by team president Mark Shapiro and his GM, Atkins, not performing to expectations. The three in-season managerial firings (also Phillies, Joe Girardi; Angels, Joe Maddon) have commonality: a record team payroll, huge expectations followed by subpar play and managers who almost certainly were not going to be back next year anyway. The White Sox (Tony La Russa) fall into that category too, though La Russa seems like a made man by owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Thus, Atkins/Shapiro, Dave Dombrowski/Sam Fuld (Phillies), Perry Minasian (Angels) and Ken Williams/Rick Hahn (White Sox) all are under stress to fix problems — albeit Minasian as a seller because the Angels followed having the majors’ third-best record on May 15 (24-13) with the worst record (15-39) since. Castillo is currently the best starter in the market. He has faced three contenders in July (Braves, Rays, Yankees) and delivered seven one-run innings against each with a .

160 batting average against. His audition is going great. Now, Krall has to maximize that piece.

Baltimore’s 10-game winning streak ended Friday, but the O’s had actually risen to a 10. 8 percent playoff chance (Baseball Reference). The patient, logical Elias and his lieutenants will note: 1) That things are volatile, considering Baltimore was at 0.

2 percent on July 3. 2) There was still an 89 percent chance of not making the playoffs. 3) The four teams in front of them in the AL East join Houston as the five best in the league.

Still, Elias must be delicate here. The Orioles finally have some attendance and buzz back, and now a pushed-up date to 2023 of really trying to contend. So will he still sell the popular Trey Mancini and relievers? The trump card he gets to play is to incorporate more well-regarded prospects to the majors, following catcher Adley Rutschman, to try to help now and titillate fans for the future.

Keep an eye on: shortstops Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg, lefty DL Hall and outfielder Kyle Stowers. The last major piece of the 2016 championship (Willson Contreras) will go as Hoyer tries to step out of Theo Epstein’s shadow and prove he can reconstruct a Wrigley winner. He did most of the disassembling last deadline, notably for trading Javier Baez and Trevor Williams to obtain Pete Crow-Armstrong from the Mets while he was recovering from shoulder surgery.

Crow-Armstrong has been impressive at Single-A this year, so much so that Alderson, on “The Show,” multiple times bemoaned the Mets’ trade last year without fully knowing who Crow-Armstrong was. That (to me) screams the Mets will not be dealing their best pitching prospect, Matt Allan, as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Going into Saturday, the Cardinals had the 1-2-3 (Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, Tommy Edman) in WAR (Baseball Reference), yet were two games out of first in the NL Central and barely holding on to the third wild card.

St. Louis spectacularly churns out useful players from the system but is not maximizing that strength enough. St.

Louis needs its big free-agent buy, Steven Matz, to return well from a shoulder injury (he likely will start Sunday), but also probably have to find more rotation help in the market. San Diego projects just below the $230 million luxury-tax threshold. Is Preller permitted to go over that to upgrade a strong team? Or will he have to find a way to park some or most of Eric Hosmer’s or Wil Myers’ owed money somewhere else? Perhaps only Dipoto has an itchier trade finger than Preller, so he is not going to sit still with a talented team, especially knowing the NL-best Dodgers under Andrew Friedman are going to find ways to improve too.

The Red Sox were a surprisingly strong team last year after Bloom received criticism for not doing enough to upgrade the roster. Bloom is enduring it again, and worse because Boston lowballed Xander Bogaerts (who can opt out after this year) and Rafael Devers (who can be free after 2023) with extension offers. J.

D. Martinez is in his walk year, as are Nathan Eovaldi, Enrique Hernandez and Christian Vazquez. Huge changes are coming.

Bloom is determined not to detour the Red Sox from his vision of building a team that does not take a roller-coaster ride from championship success to the bottom of the division as Boston has multiple times the past two decades. Still, he can’t just punt on 2022. .